Eight fire engines and around 40 firefighters were sent to a fire at a car body-repair workshop in Cricklewood after the first emergency call shortly after midnight, the London Fire Brigade has said.
The blaze on Waterloo Road destroyed one car and affected part of the unit’s ground floor. The brigade said there were no reports of injuries at the time of its update, while the cause remains under investigation.
Crews called shortly after midnight
Control officers received the first of three calls at 12.17am on Wednesday. Firefighters from Willesden, West Hampstead, Finchley and neighbouring stations were mobilised to the north-west London scene.
The incident was brought under control at 1.22am. That places the point at which the fire was declared under control 65 minutes after the first call, although the brigade has not released further detail about how the fire started or the extent of disruption around the site.
A large appliance turnout is used for an incident requiring a substantial operational response, but the brigade’s account makes clear that the damage it has confirmed so far is limited to a vehicle and part of the workshop’s ground floor. No injuries had been reported when that update was issued.
Investigation continues
Fire investigators will now seek to establish the cause. No finding has yet been announced, and it would be premature to draw conclusions about how the fire began or whether any further action will follow.
The workshop is on Waterloo Road in Cricklewood, an area served by neighbouring fire stations across Brent and nearby boroughs. The attendance drew crews from several local stations as the response was under way in the early hours.
London Fire Brigade’s first public operational alert described crews as responding to a fire at a car workshop. Its later incident record confirmed that the fire had been brought under control, set out the damage known at that stage and said there were no reported injuries. The later account is the basis for the confirmed details of the response.
The three calls recorded by the brigade indicate that more than one member of the public contacted the emergency service during the incident. The brigade has not said where those callers were or provided any account of what they saw, so there is no confirmed information about the fire’s initial discovery beyond the time of the first call.
Nor has an explanation been offered for the number of engines sent, beyond the brigade’s operational response to the conditions reported at the scene. The official update does not describe any fire spread outside the affected part of the unit, any evacuation, a road closure or an impact on nearby properties. Those points should not be inferred from the appliance attendance alone.
For people in the area, the key remaining uncertainty is the cause. The brigade has not said whether the investigation is expected to take a particular course, and no further information about the business or any individuals connected with the premises has been released.
What is known so far
The confirmed picture is that crews were called after midnight, eight engines and approximately 40 firefighters attended, one car was destroyed, and part of the workshop’s ground floor was affected. The fire was under control just after 1.20am; no injuries were reported in the brigade’s update, and the cause is being investigated.
The incident record does not identify the vehicle involved, the operator of the workshop, or the value of any loss. It also does not say whether the unit reopened after crews left. In the absence of a stated cause or further authority update, those details remain unconfirmed.
Emergency-service accounts can be updated as investigations progress. Any later information on the cause, reported injuries, or the condition of the premises would need to come from the relevant authorities. Until then, the available official account identifies a contained workshop fire that required a significant overnight response but has not been linked to any reported injuries.
